When I met BP, he was a Sales Director, following having run his own company for a while. He felt he was fighting his way back to find himself, after the life altering experience of having to close down his company. With losing his business, he felt he had lost his self confidence and esteem, his personal sense of power and was feeling battered and like he had climbed into a shell. He avoided confrontation, would listen more and talk little, and so wasn’t voicing his opinions at work. He felt that due to him being reserved, he was not being recognized for the contribution he was and could make to the company he was now the Sales Director of. […]

I met with CJ when she had just left the corporate world to start her own consulting firm. She had felt unempowered and not recognized in her corporate position, and the stress affected her, impacting her health negatively. CJ felt she needed to improve her self-belief and self confidence now that she was working on her own. And for her new business she knew she needed to do more networking and selling, yet this scared her so much because it was unfamiliar and she found it challenging to connect with people, foster relationships and make “small talk”. She was more task-focused, serious and reserved and hadn’t needed these skills till now. […]